U.S. beats Iran by 3-1 to tie Russia for top spot in Pool E: FIVB Men's Junior World Championship
The United States was able to hand out a defeat to the Iran at 3-1 on the 5th of August in the second round of the FIVB Men's Junior World Championship in a match that was being played at the Maracanazinho Gymnasium in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
The first set of the match was lost by the Americans as the Iranians put up an impressive fight. However, the Americans learnt their lesson after the loss of the opening set and were able to defeat the Iranians by a comfortable margin in the second set.
The third set of the game was dominated by the Americans all through and all the Iranians could do was struggle and keep up. The Iranians put up a feeble effort in the fourth set that was not enough to upset the Americans from securing a match win at the following
final set scores: 22-25, 25-19, 25-15 and 25-17.
John Hawks IV, the American coach, expressed himself in the following words after his team had won the match: “I am very pleased with my team. We adjusted our receiving after the first set and we managed to win using our defensive skills again. Taylor Sander
was amazing. Scoring 22 block points against 10 of Iran is outstanding for us. We had three very tough teams ahead of us in this group and now there are only two left.”
On the other hand, the Iranian coach, Jovica Cvetkovic, made the following comments at the press conference after the match: “There is no much to say about this match. Of course the American played really well, but I am sure we helped them a lot playing
so bad. It was one of our worst matches in the last times.”
The opening set of the game saw the Iranians take the lead early on but the Americans kept up the chase until they had tied the score at 15-15. The Americans were able to push past and take the lead at 21-19 but the Iranians did not give up until they had
won the first set of the match at 25-22.
The loss of the first set did not sit well with the Americans who started the second one off with a lead of 8-5. Iran was able to close in the gap at 14-13 and finally tied the match. However, the Americans were determined to finish off the set on their
terms and they went ahead at 22-19 which later got translated into a 25-21 win.
Capitalising on the momentum generated by winning the second set of the game, the U.S was able to take lead at 8-4 in the third that got extended to 15-6. It was only a matter of time before the U.S. sealed the deal at 25-15. Similarly, the fourth set was
dominated by the Americans all through and ended in a 25-17 score.
With their recent win, the Americans have achieved a tie position for the first spot with the Russians in Pool E of the tournament.
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